Carrie's note: Erin is a rather new soaper, sharing her learning and soaping journey with you in real time! I just love seeing her grow as a soaper through her guest posts here. She is doing so well. Soap and prosper, young grasshopper! 💕
Erin is using our old purple neon pigment. Our new purple neon pigment can be found here, and it's even brighter! If you want a bold, bright true purple, our purple neon pigment is the way to go!
Crystal Purple Persuasion Soap
I’m an inclusive soaper, and I don’t want anyone to miss out on having the proper musical background in their head while they read. So here’s a link, soapy friends: Crystal Blue Persuasion – Tommy James and The Shondells. Now that we’re all on the same musical page, let’s talk Purple Neon Pigment. As of this moment, there are two formulas on the website, an old and a new. I ordered some time ago, so I assume the one I used was the old one. Apparently, this formula turned pink when it got hot. I didn’t have that problem, but I soap in the fridge. The new formula has been improved to prevent this problem, and testing and reviews suggest that the problem has been corrected. So you should be able to produce similar results to mine with the new formula, if you so desire. Fair warning: This is not a purple to be trifled with.
Fragrance First
I wanted something fresh and clean. Sambucus Fragrance Oil, Clean Laundry Fragrance Oil, and Rosemary Mint Fragrance Oil worked out great, but it’s important to note that Clean Laundry discolors slightly. I worked with it, rather than fighting it, and it worked just fine. These three play well together, and the mint doesn’t overpower, as it sometimes does. I blended the Sambucus and Rosemary Mint together, but left Clean Laundry out to blend separately.
Experimenting With Technique
I wanted to try a new technique (new to me, anyway) where the soap is poured on a base at an angle, then allowed to fall straight before topping the mold off. And I wanted purple. So I put together a big batch of the formula that I love best, and blended just over half of it with Purple Neon.
I propped the mold on its side, at about 40 degrees. You don’t need a protractor, unless you just like that sort of thing. The color is beautiful here, but it did morph a bit, so that I thought maybe I was going to get a little less color from it. Just wait. This is about half the purple. I set the rest aside. The rest I divided into four buckets: Synergy Blue Green Mica, Cabaret Pink Purple Mica, and Activated Charcoal. I put a little bit of Kaolin Clay in each batch, 1 teaspoon per pound of oils, because I like the way it helps hold the fragrance.
Move Fast For Fine Swirls
I stirred the Clean Laundry into the charcoal colored soap by hand, then divided the rest of the fragrance blend among the others. These fragrances don’t accelerate, but I always go this route, because I prefer to buy as much time as I possibly can, so I can have the swirliest soap possible. Leaving the mold at an angle, I poured long, thin stripes in layers along the lower side of the mold, directly on top of each other, until I ran out. The smaller and thinner the stripe, the finer the swirls in the end. When all the stripes were poured, I slipped the support out from under the edge, and let the stripes slide, then a scraped the last of the purple on top, and made a few loops through the loaf with a swirling tool. I scraped the last bits of the soap in stripes on top and swirled just the top of the soap.
Pretty, but I didn’t love it. Also, it’s a lot easier to unmold soap when the mold is clean. Wipe down your edges, friends.
No, Seriously. This Is Purple
A little of the micas and the Neon Purple in small containers, mixed with olive oil. I poured in long stripes over the old stripes, and swirled again.
That’s better. There’s no swirl pattern here. I choose to embrace the chaos. I tucked it into the fridge for the night, then took it out and let it warm and cure another day before cutting and finishing.
It’s so purple it’s hard to capture the purpleness of it. It reflects purple on to my background. Usually, some of the brightness fades between the top swirls and the body of the soap, but the Synergy particularly hangs on to its intensity through the curing process. This soap has been beveled and polished, and it has really hung on to its colors. I’m going to go ahead and recommend the kaolin clay for fragrance retention as well. It seems to be up for debate, presumably because scent is subjective anyway, but in my experience, it really keeps fragrances hanging on.
Happy Soaping!
Erin
